Rolf Harris in child abuse warning video
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Rolf Harris once starred in a 20-minute no to child abuse video, produced in 1985 titled Kids Can Say No! Copyright owner: Rolf Harris Video.

Herald Sun

19 Jan 2014

News

‘Touching can be a really nice feeling,’ Harris says in the educational video.Source: Supplied

BY THE time Rolf Harris’s educational program alerting kids to the dangers and prevention of child sexual abuse was released, he had already indecently assaulted three of the four young women he was convicted of abusing — one aged as young as seven.

Developed in 1985 and bought by educational parties, libraries and the police force across Europe, the UK and Australia, Kids Can Say No! is a 20-minute video aimed at “preventing child abuse”, according to its back cover.

The video was to have been shown at the trial of the entertainer with prosecutors, who had found it on Youtube, keen to highlight the irony of the message he had delivered on the footage.

But it was ruled irrelevant to proceedings and not entered as evidence.

In the footage, Harris sings along with the children about their rights over their body. There is also an acted out scenario in which a school friend goes to the house to visit another but only their father is there who then abuses them.

The film ends with a sing-a-long by Harris and the children who are joined by two police officers who stand behind the Australian entertainer for the chorus.

Harris appeared alongside a number of children to “teach them the basis of yes feelings and no feelings and what to do”, confirmed Jessica Skippon, whose UK-based company, Skippon Video, was responsible for distributing the film.

By the time children were watching the educational program in the safety of their schools, Harris would have committed nine of the 12 sexual offences outlined against him.

A number of confronting scenarios are portrayed in the footage, including “big boys” inviting a group of young children to their “special club” and a father running his daughter a bubble bath so they can play a “secret game”.

“Isn’t it good to be alive on a day like today?” Harris says, as he attempts to explain the difference between the right and wrong scenarios to the young children, aged between seven and eight.

“Breathe that air, you feel it all over your skin. It’s good, isn’t it?”

‘You can get a NO feeling from people you know.’Source: Supplied

‘It is hard to say no to them.’Source: Supplied

“It’s the sort of feeling when you want to give someone a hug, or one of those little pats that make you feel good. It’s that sort of touching I was to talk about today because it helps you understand the sort of touching that doesn’t make you feel too good.”

Between 1968 and 1970, Harris touched a seven- or eight-year-old girl and in 1975 he assaulted a second girl.

Seven charges of indecent assault relate to a third victim, a 13-year-old school friend of his daughter, Bindi, during a holiday to Australia via Hawaii in 1978.

‘My uncle rubbed his bristly face on my face.’Source: Supplied

‘It wasn’t funny. I hated it.’Source: Supplied

‘I hate people pulling on my beard.’Source: Supplied

According to the victim, she stepped out of a hotel shower wrapped in a towel and was met by Harris, who hugged her, then spat on his fingers before digitally penetrating her.

Harris later conceded he’d had eight sexual encounters with the woman, including oral sex in a laneway, his daughter’s house and on a motorway en route to London, but not until she was the legal age, 18. He would have been 53 at the time.

The remaining three charges relate to a fourth victim, aged 14, in 1986 just a year after the release of Kids Can Say No!.

There are awful scenarios described during the video.Source: Supplied

‘You feel you should obey them,’ says Harris during the video.Source: Supplied

It was found the 84-year-old entertainer molested one victim as she sat on his lap at a pub bench, another while signing her an autograph because he had no free hands, and another after he squatted on all fours and barked like a dog. He also tongue kissed an 11-year-old girl who had been staying with Harris and his wife, Alwen, in the couple’s home.

In the video, Harris advised the children to “tell your parents or an adult you trust, like your teacher or a school nurse.

“The best way to be safe is to tell enough other people. You want to blow a whistle that everyone can hear. You have a right to feel safe.”

Yet, the entertainer spent two decades indecently assaulting young women.

On the third day of cross examination, prosecutor Sasha Wass put it to the court that Harris found touching children particularly attractive because they didn’t judge him like an adult would.

She pointed out five “common themes” between the incidents: the assaults all took place in public; sexually assaulting them through a friendly gesture like a hug; trapping his victim so they were unable to move or protest; ensuring others were present during the assault and maintaining ignorance of the assault immediately after.

Harris maintained his innocence throughout the trial.

Harris told the children how they could speak out about an assault.Source: Supplied

Harris: ‘And it is not your fault if the bad person gets in trouble.’Source: Supplied

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